Ananda Marshall

Somewhere along the way, we began to confuse living with consuming. Real living means being present. Real living isn’t attached to what you have, or how you look. Real living is about what is in your heart. It means moving with gratitude, humility, and peace. It means honoring the ground beneath our feet, the air in our lungs, and the water that keeps us alive.

Mother Earth is where we began, and where we will return. She is powerful, beautiful, and wise. She is imperfectly perfect, and deeply alive. If there is a god who is loving, karmic, kind, and just, I believe it is her. And to her, I want to say: I’m sorry. I’m sorry for the pain we’ve caused, for the damage done out of greed and ignorance. I’m sorry for the way we’ve stripped your body for our gain and treated your gifts as an endless bounty of wealth.

But I also want to say: I believe in our ability to change. I believe we can shift from taking to giving, from rushing to listening, from harm to healing. I hope that one day we learn how to live in harmony with you again—not just for your sake, but for our own.

Because there is no life without Earth. There is no us without you, but there is a you without us.